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Introduced by the author, detailing the historical and emotional inspiration for the situation of siege with no hope of relief that takes place in the story and the aspects of this clash of warring cultures that she aimed to examine.

The girl did not answer for a while; for so long, in fact, that Yudhyana had started to move back towards the camp. When she spoke, her voice stopped him, as surely as a knife drawn across his throat. “Everything lives and dies,” she whispered. “Everything changes, and all changes end in death.”